As The Station Turns 5/11-5/12

 The thing about Mondays is I work with Mrs. Late Guy for four hours. So I don't have to rush to get in. I don't have to do any of the stocking. Unfortunately I have to work the register that is right under the air conditioner so I had to wear my jacket all day. I was also stuck listening to the Top 40 radio for half the day and...I can't tell the difference between songs, they all sound the same. Same rhythm, same manufactured music, same general lyrics. Maybe I'm getting old but I just wanted something in which the singer was actually interested in the lyrics rather than just singing them, some anger, some sorrow, some passion, not just singing the lyrics. I guess I got old somewhere along the way.

Anyhow the Random Woman showed up to work early across the street. It turns out Mr. and Mrs. Late Guy had to go to a school meeting in the afternoon. Pretty soon I'm gonna have to buy raffle tickets, I hope they have good prizes.

There's a crackhead that comes around, she's a total burnout and starts trouble. Back when I worked at the Truck Stop before I would run her off and pretty soon she was staying away, except Late Guy feeds her and now she's showing up again. I'm gonna have to get mean, again, she can hang out across the interstate where her boyfriend is working Beggar's Corner. I'm not going to be surprised when they find her in a shallow grave on the edge of town. And yes, I feel sorry for those people but I can feel sorry for them and want them to not bug my customers at the same time.

I was really happy, the county puts out alerts and they said there was going to be a power outage in the middle of the night on Tuesday. This meant when I got home I needed to charge my backup camp battery so I had TV and the internet and check the battery in my good camera so I could go out and do some star photos. Turns out the report was wrong and the power outage is for a town 30 miles down the road. Oh well, maybe next time.

There are several gravel hauler semis parked across the road. I wonder what project they are working on or if this is a sign they are going to start the bridge project. However the trailer with the "dispensary" billboard is still across the street. When that thing is gone you know the project will be starting.

Mrs. Late Guy left so now I could take a short break, however a guy came in and was reading the entire label on the antifreeze bottle and I had to wait. He finally left and I got a swarm. I had to put off my break for another hour.

A van pulled onto the lot but didn't pull all the way up to the pumps, however it was also blocking the entrance. The guy just sat there, and I knew he was going to bug customers but there weren't any on the lot at that time, so he finally left, the problem solved itself. However he came back and parked at the station next door, got out his gas can and came walking over to the lot, Oh No. So I went out and told him he wasn't pulling that scam here. He said he didn't have a van and I told him I had seen him on the lot earlier and I watched him walk over. He claimed he hadn't been here earlier and I told him I had watched him and he'd better be gone by the time I got back inside. He went back to the station next door and sat there for an hour, trying to pull his scam on their customers. He left around sundown. I hate when people try to lie to me.

I had a few minutes so I ran out to dump the trash. There was some guy who wanted to chat. Sorry dude, I'm in a hurry, sure enough when I got the trash done a crowd showed up. I don't care if you're retired and have time to kill, I don't have the time to fill it for you.

Although later the Storyteller came in and told me about his lottery routine. He buys tickets every night but not on Sunday, he buys those in the morning before he goes to church. And yes, I know his ticket routine because I've heard it a hundred times. Also he doesn't get in the way of customers so I don't mind him.

An hour before closing I got my usual rush. I couldn't help but notice the station across the street was empty. Why do they always do that? Oh well, I got all my work done in advance. During the rush a guy came in and asked me if he was on pump 4. Well, there is a way to find out, look at the pump number before you walk in. He's also telling me "it's the Nissan" as if I can identify the car at night, with a lot full of cars, and through a tinted window. So I set pump 4 but if it was the wrong one, not my problem. 

In the last half hour I wanted to run the mop over the restroom floor one more time, however I got mobbed and the restroom became the Graveyard Shift's problem. I don't mind.

The Graveyard Shift guy showed up, I got out of my drawer, did my paperwork and clocked out. He said it looked like he was working alone again so I said I was going to get out of there before the phone rang. They need to hire more people.

5/12

I had to do some running around this morning and when I went by the West Side Station it was closed. I was curious so I stopped at the Haunted Station to get the gossip from the Late Guy. It seems the register crashed yesterday and when he went to check on it he was getting the "wheel of death" (an expression I've added to his vocabulary btw). Anyhow he left it running last night and when he went to check on it this morning the entire system crashed, and he can't get it back up. They are going to have to have a tech come in and probably either reboot the entire system or replace it with something updated. Anyhow the Manager got sent home, this is the second time this year that the whole place has been shut down. They will probably have her working at one of the other stations until they can straighten things out, however she's been talking about quitting and this might push her over the edge. They really need to hire some new people.

The Late Guy told me about the fun he had this morning. It seems that the Random Woman decided to get some work done yesterday so she took the cappuccino machine apart and, didn't put it back together properly. When the first customer went to use it water went everywhere, the Late Guy had to clean up the mess. Also she got food crumbs everywhere and didn't clean it up. There is going to be angry words today, I was going to go by and say Hi this afternoon but she's not going to be in a good mood, and I expect her to quit soon. Again, they need to hire some new people.

The Late Guy also told me the Crazy Lady was across the street when he came in so she must have shown up late. I wish I could set whatever hours I want to work. 

And then I came home.